Better Wellness
The “Better Wellness” podcast is about the discovery of the many different aspects of human wellness, including innovations in such topics as meditation, mindfulness, yoga, nutrition, stress, sleep and the effects of depression and anxiety on the human body. The podcast also gives equal importance on the body and mind.
Guests include World Class experts and visionaries in the world of wellness. The show is hosted by Roland Perez, author and award-winning PBS Executive Producer of the “American Health Journal” and “Healthy Kids” and Janet Walker, writer and producer for the “American Health Journal” and “Healthy Kids” and host of the podcast "Healthy Cells Healthy You with Janet Walker".
Better Wellness
The Secret to Longevity: Make your home a Blue Zone!
Longevity doesn't require a plane ticket to exotic locations or radical lifestyle overhauls. In this enlightening conversation, wellness expert David Delrahim reveals how the secrets of Blue Zones—those special places where people live remarkably long, healthy lives—can be recreated right in your own home. The power lies in understanding the components that make Blue Zone communities special and implementing them in your daily life. It's not mystical geography but practical choices about diet, community, and movement that create the Blue Zone effect.
Ready to transform your home into a personal Blue Zone? Listen now to discover practical steps toward living longer and healthier without leaving your neighborhood. Subscribe to the Better Wellness podcast on Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeart Radio to continue your journey toward optimal wellness.
From the producers of PBS's American Health Journal and Innovations in Medicine. Thank you for listening to Better Wellness.
We're always looking for ways to live longer and healthier right. So you might have heard about blue zones. These are places in the world where people seem to live a little longer. These zones are Japan and Italy, costa Rica, greece and right here in the United States at Loma Linda, california. But can the lifestyle choices found in these special blue zones be brought home to your family?
Roland Perez:Welcome to Better Wellness, a podcast that explores the newest innovations in true wellness. I'm your host, roland Perez, as the executive producer of the American Health Journal for more than 25 years and produced over 530-minute award-winning healthcare television shows and aired nationally on PBS with an audience of over 100 million viewers. But Better Wellness is more than that not only keeping your body healthy, but developing the mindset and balance that prevents illness. Our guests are experienced experts in the world of staying healthy, young and well. Today we're speaking to David Delrahim, wellness expert and noted visionary in the field of wellness and healing. Today he's going to share his thoughts on blue zones and, through his project called Cocoon that is working to help the world discover how to live a healthier, longer life and make smarter choices. David, talk to me about Blue Zones.
Roland Perez:Everyone is talking about Blue Zones, as if if you move to Tibet, you'll live to be 120. It's just, you go to Italy and you go on a certain diet and you're in a certain village and you don't die. I remember a story that the explorer Cook wrote when he was doing the Pacific Islands and he came to an island where no one ever got sick because there was never anybody on the island to bring sickness to them. And then as soon as the sailors got off the boat, they made them sick and they all died Because they had no immune system. They were never sick. So this sort of goes along with the blue zones. You know an island that is completely unaffected by disease, and then we have all the Blue Zone controversy that people have With that. What is your thoughts about Blue Zones?
David Delraheim:You know the way I'm looking at the Blue Zone. Blue Zone is an amazing awareness. Blue Zone is granted that there are five physical locations throughout the globe that people live happy and they live a long life. You know what they are. The closest one to us is the Loma Linda Loma.
Roland Perez:Linda California, where Loma Linda California, where Loma Linda University is.
David Delraheim:Yes, exactly, but you know if you really, and the information is on the Internet and you're looking. As I said, the blue zone is an awareness, awareness about what, about certain lifestyle, because we know wellness is a lifestyle, but those zones promote and support those kind of wellness lifestyles. We call it blue zone. Now does it mean that you have to be in those areas, geographical areas, for you to benefit from that? No, I believe your home could be a blue zone.
David Delraheim:You just have to go ahead and understand those components and try to recreate them within your own space. You'll be in a blue zone Community. You know eating, eating. You know having Mediterranean diet. So when we are looking at this, which is really community, we know how essential that is Our association together, to be together. You know giving each other support, because this is what community is Community gives support to each other and we wanna feel supported and we know that those, the people who do not feel supported, often suffer from a lot of psychological challenges. So community works with our mental diet, which is the food that we eat, you know. Another thing is they walk. See, all of these components can we have them? Absolutely, I know we will have them at Cocoon. So, either way, with Cocoon we are creating a Blue Zone, but it's supported blue zone. We just cannot say, all right, I got this, I got a blue zone. Whatever it is, whether it is our home, five geographical areas, they're being supported. Whether it's cultural, whether it's just a part of the upbringing, it just is.
Roland Perez:I was at Loma Linda and I'm doing a documentary there on cardiology and I asked them about this. I said you're a blue zone, what makes you a blue zone? And he was one of the marketing people there and he says it's not what we do, it's what we don't do. Is it's not what we do, it's what we don't do? They're supported by Seventh-day Adventist church. That area is solid Seventh-day Adventist church. The hospital is the Seventh-day Adventist hospital. The university is Seventh-day, so they are supported by their faith is Seventh Day, so they are supported by their faith. So that's the way it's a blue zone because they don't smoke and they don't eat meat and they have a lot of habits they walk, they exercise and so it's not so much what they do, it's what they don't do.
David Delraheim:Well, it's a balance of everything. So you know what? In the blue zones, yes, people eat their Mediterranean diet, but they are conscious of the portions. We know that the portion could be as devastating as the quality of the portions. We know that the portion could be as devastating as the quality of the food. We Americans, we eat too much and we don't walk. That means we do. We're not moving our body, all right, and we know what happens to our metabolism right.
David Delraheim:So if we really look into the blue zone. As I said, we can easily recreate blue zones even within our own house communities, just understanding the components.
Roland Perez:And bringing that understanding to people is part of Cocoon's duty is to bring the blue zone to them. Not have them move to the blue zone, but bringing the blue zone to them. Not have them move to the blue zone, but bringing the blue zone to them.
David Delraheim:Absolutely, and showing people how easy it is to achieve. So another cocoon is a multidimensional consciousness, as we talked about. One of them is is, of course, creating the awareness. Create, having the support and showing people how easy it is to do it. See part of the reason in in instances we know what is good for us and what is not. Then how come we don't go from doing something that is bad for us to doing something good for us? Part of it is the fear Not being supported, not knowing where we're going. We know what it is. It's comfort, laziness, all right, all of these things. It's a lot of work.
David Delraheim:We always say that in order to create another level of excuse right. But if I show you how easy it is, excuse right. But if I show you how easy it is, how easy it is for you to eat good vegetables, how easy it is for you to have a little bit of vegetable garden in your backyard If you have a yard, if you don't, you can still have it yeah, of course, parts, parts, absolutely. So showing people, creating this awareness, the information, showing people how easy it is, and walking through that journey together. I know you are me and I am you. I am the 8 billion and the 8 billion is me, so we're going to do it together. I'm not going to prescribe something that I want you to do it together. I'm not gonna prescribe something that I want you to do it and I'm not gonna do it. I don't believe in that. Even back in 2016, when we did it at the company, I did that with them all the way.
Roland Perez:So Cocoon is going to bring the blue zones to people and teach them, instruct them on how they can stay healthier and bring those blue zones into their homes 100%.
David Delraheim:You don't even have to be a member of a gym to do that, right, you don't? You see, we do a lot of things that we actually. We're doing it because we're trying to check the box. We have created this set of boxes. For example, you know what, going to the gym getting a lot of pills every day, one for this, one for that. You know what the next time with our friends. You know what? He's on something and I gotta have that thing too, all right. And then, when it comes to our own diet, we eat dead food. How about if we change that from dead food to the live food? We don't even have to have a lot of those pills and then go for a walk.
Roland Perez:And watch the portions.
David Delraheim:Watch the portions. Our body doesn't need this much food, does not.
Roland Perez:Yeah, several friends of mine have lost weight over the last few years and I said did you exercise, did you take a pill, did you? Then he says, no, I just bought smaller plates. I just filled the plates and they were just smaller.
David Delraheim:Sure because our gut is flexible, expandable. We eat too much, wants too much. Because it expands, we eat less, it contracts.
Roland Perez:So blue zones are just a reflection of what's inside the zone.
David Delraheim:Absolutely. If you look at the blue zone as a box, you have to see what's in it. There's no magic here.
Roland Perez:There's no magic. None, none.
David Delraheim:I wish hope and pray that there will be a time that the entire planet is blue zone.
Roland Perez:Interesting, and I'm hoping for that also. Yes, david, thank you for coming in. It's always a treat to talk to you about living a longer, healthier life For our listeners. I hope you can join David's journey toward better wellness for each person in the world. And remember, the Better Wellness podcast is available just about anywhere, including Spotify, amazon Music and iHeart Radio. So, once again, thanks for supporting Better Wellness. I'm your host, roland Perez. Thanks for listening.
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